Neon Demons in Our Monochrome World
by HumanAtHeart
Summary: The damned are said to come about with flamboyant and beautifully colorful hair, and the very idea of them terrifies anyone living in this tiny forest village. But what if one of those very demons was a childhood friend, or even lover? How far would you go for them if your love meant eternal exile and maybe even worse, damnation?
1. Chapter 1

By: HumanAtHeart

One

March 9th, Present Day

"My God….who is that?"

"What is going on? What happened?"

"What did he do? I've never heard of him before! His name doesn't sound familiar at all…."

"We'll just have to wait until they bring him out."

The murmur of voices around me was a whispered symphony of questions and rumors. This didn't surprise me; a public punishment wasn't exactly something that happened every day. I honestly had no interest in such things, but the majority of our little forest village loved to see action in the midst of a somber March gloom. I probably wouldn't have gone had my elder sister not dragged me from my own business to observe the bringing of retribution upon some man no one seemed to know. I had heard no name, and frankly I hadn't bothered to disturb anyone from their excitement to ask for it. If no one knew who this man was from just his name, why would I?

I lingered toward the back of the crowd, not taking the initiative to even look like I cared about the display of public humiliation that would be brought upon this poor sinner, whoever he may be. Looking around, I noticed that my sister had disappeared from my side, most likely to get closer to where the raised platform stood, most likely to get a better view of whoever the sinner was when they were finally brought out into the open. I sighed, knowing how excited she got about action like this. She was adventurous and reckless, as many of our village's girls were. Considering that we lived in such a dangerous land, that wasn't such a negative.

"Kiyoteru!" a deep woman's voice called. I whirled around at the sound of my name to see a small, dark eyed woman running in my direction. I waved at her as she ran, watched her black curls bounce around like millions of tiny springs.

"Prima," I greeted her once the woman had reached the spot where I stood, breathing heavily from the effort from the effort of running to catch up to me. "How are you?"

"I'm doing just fine," Prima replied before pointing an accusing finger at my chest. "How are _you_? And your sister, how is she doing?"

"Meiko is just fine." I assured her, knowing how close the two were. "I think she went up to get a closer look. You know how much she loves this sort of thing."

"Most people around here do. You're the odd man out, really." She commented. "I don't see why you aren't excited by these things."

"I understand that you all just want to get me to be as normal as possible by coming to public events like this, but I would honestly prefer to go home and continue my work. At least when I'm there, I don't get all those glares and cruel whispers."

"No one's even looking at you, Kiyo!" Prima cried, jabbing me in the ribs. "They're all too focused on the punishment. Do you know who it is?"

"No, and I really don't care to. I hate these violent justice rituals. Sinner or not, no one deserves this kind of pain."

"Punishment is a message, Kiyoteru. Some people have to learn the law through pain. And how do you know if they're sinners or not? They could have caught a demon or even a witch!"

"Don't make me laugh." I dismissed her girlish suggestion with a wave of my hand. "No one has seen a witch in a hundred years. They never existed in the first place, if you ask me. As for demons, don't get your hopes up. It's very rare for them to let themselves be caught by humans. They're slippery little things."

"I bet you it's a demon." Prima waggled a slender finger at me. She apparently really liked to point. "I heard the hunter found one in a trap of theirs the other day!"

"Oh please, Prima. Don't tell me you actually believe those foolish rumors." I crossed my arms, a sign that I was scolding her. "You're not a child anymore. You're engaged for God's sake! You need to stop acting so girlish and ridiculous."

"Don't you dare scold me, Kiyoteru Hiyama!" she said, laughing. "What would my fiancée think of you?"

"Speak of the devil…" I found myself mumbling as the aforementioned fiancée lumbered over to us. He was a well-built man with a body that wore light muscle. He had the same fair skin as everyone else in the village, due to the cold climate of the forest.

"Hello beautiful," he said, his long strides leading him straight to Prima, who he lifted up by her waist and spun around before setting her back down. She giggled as he bent to kiss her forehead. "How is my handsome Prima?"

"Wonderful, now that you're here." She said, smiling like an idiot. I sighed, knowing this would take a while. My sigh, however, happened to catch the slim man's attention.

"Oh, hello Kiyoteru. I didn't see you there." He said, his eyebrown raising as he realized his mistake. I inwardly groaned at his ignorance.

"It's nice to see you Tonio." I said, trying to create a barrier of formalities between us. I heavily disliked Tonio due to his ignorant opinions and simple mindedness. He was kind and all, but he wasn't someone I would want to get close with. Turning back to Prima, I changed topics. "Have you seen Mew or Bruno?"

"I saw Bruno over toward the front with Al," Prima said, taking her eyes off of her bearded fiancée for a moment to speak to me. "I haven't seen Mew since yesterday, but I would imagine she's found Meiko by now."

"Thank you, Prima." I gave Tonio one last glance before turning to leave them to each other. I didn't want to be around while they were standing so close to each other; it only reminded me of the past I could never return to.

Politely nudging my way through the crowd, I searched for Bruno and Al. Neither was hard to miss, both being much taller than the average person. They were giants who waded through the seas I drowned in, being so much shorter than them. I wasn't small, per say, I was just average. That was the way everyone liked it, so I didn't stick out too much, everyone including me.

For a fleeting moment, I considered calling out to them. I quickly dashed the idea, knowing it would be foolish to draw attention to myself. I'd almost been excommunicated from the church, and there were still people who thought I hadn't repented for my sins. Thank God they didn't have any proof as to how right they were…

Still not spotting Al or Bruno, I decided to get as close to the front as possible, knowing that would be the first place Meiko and Mew would go. They were both very excitable women, not exactly childish the way Prima was, but energetic all the same.

By this point, I'd pushed my way to the front of the crowd, mumbling apologies to the people I nudged aside as I went. I few turned to sneer at me, but most were too caught up in the moment to pay me any of their attention. I looked at my surroundings, trying to see if Mew or my sister were anywhere near. I had been with Meiko mere minutes ago; she couldn't have gone that far…..

The voices of the crowd suddenly dimmed like a flickering candle before falling silent completely. I looked up, realizing that they must have been about to bring out the mystery man for his punishment. For a split second, I knew I had to decide whether I was going to watch for the man or keep looking, knowing I would miss him if I didn't look now.

My curiosity getting the better of me, I looked up at the platform to see what was about to happen.

They had opened the doors to the stone jail sitting behind the platform. The men acting as guards had opened it and gone inside, weapons at the ready. Whoever was in there, they were obviously dangerous.

It felt as if the entire village held its breath in waiting for the man to emerge. Every person stood stock still, apprehensive and excited to learn the identity of the name they'd been hearing all morning. Every set of eyes, even my own, was set on that open door, waiting to see who would come out.

There was no sound or signs of a struggle. After a few minutes a man was led out through the open door and into the sunlight, his head hanging in shame. He was tall and muscular, the way many of our people looked. He had a bare back, a requirement for his punishment, and baggy hunter's pants of a peculiar shade. His wrists were bound with rope and connected to a leash like chain that was held by one of the men who had led him out. No one spoke at first when they saw him. In fact, there was no sound at all aside from a few gasps and a couple children shuffling their feet impatiently.

Prima's prediction had been right; this man was a demon.

The telltale sign was his long purple hair that hung limply from his head and over his face, going all the way down to his hips and half-covering his bare back. His eyes were sheltered by his strange purple locks, but if I had to guess, I would say that they were probably a luminescent blue or green or maybe some other strange color.

Our holy book claims these creatures to be the spirits of the damned that had risen from hell after merging themselves with demons. They had such strange, brightly colored hair and eyes. It was bizarrely flamboyant for a forest dwelling species, obviously bad for camouflage. The only possible explanation that we humans had found was that they were made stunningly beautiful and unearthly to trick humans into thinking they were angels before dragging them down to hell._ I_ had never seen anyone hurt by a demon before; in fact, I'd seen more demonkind harmed by humans.

But one did not simply go against their holy book. That wasn't how it worked.

After a moment, the crowd behind me exploded in fury, screaming insults and throwing stones at the man. The guards dragging him out began roughly pulling him up onto the wooden platform. He didn't struggle, but he walked very slowly and steadily, a knowing sense of defeat about him. He didn't bother to look at the crowd as he was tugged over to the center of the platform for the entire village to see.

"Behold!" the man who had been dragging him shouted to the onlookers, gesturing to the beast. "A demon has come to our village! He was found sneaking through the night outside of our church! An enemy of God has been caught in the act of sabotaging the church's efforts to subdue his kind and protect our own! He even admitted to his crimes out of shame!"

"Demons don't feel shame!" a loud shout rang out above many of the others. I turned to see Bruno with his hands cupped around his mouth, Al standing behind him as he threw a stone at the demon. It hit the monster in the chest, causing him to stagger a bit, and yet he still didn't look up. "They're heartless! Soulless!"

"Even so," a new voice said. Everyone turned to watch the village's ancient preist climb the steep steps onto the wooden platform. He was the most highly respected person in the entire village, and with a smooth raise of his hand, everyone fell silent. "He has admitted to his crimes. Were he human, we may reconsider his punishment. However, he is still a creature of demonkind, and they are built of nothing except black oceans of evil. This man shall be punished for coming into our world so shamefully! We shall end this reign of fear from those made of sin!"

A chorus of cheers rang out, leading to chants of different suggestions of what to do to the creature. Some claimed he should be burned, others wanted him drowned, others desired his beheading. I shuddered, and for a short moment, I almost sympathized with the monster. I knew how it felt to be stood in front of the entire village, punishments being thrown at me for my unforgivable sins. And yet somehow, forgiveness was exactly what the priest had given.

The men dragged the purple haired man over to the whipping post. One of them pulled out a long, wickedly sharpened knife. Had they not just been cutting the ties on his wrists, I may not have been able to watch. But watch I did as the damned soul's hands were retied on the other side of the post, securing him against it. He didn't struggle, his face still shrouded in mystery and purple hair. I found myself becoming curious as to what his face looked like. In retrospect, I may have not even stayed to watch the man's humiliation if I weren't so curious about his appearance.

The other man who had helped drag the demon onto the platform pulled out a small wooden handle with a dozen rope tentacles decorated with knots hanging off, a whip. He raised it above his head, gave the monster one last hate coated snarl, and brought the whip down with the force of a man who spent hours chopping firewood and carrying it around.

_Crack_

The demon threw his head back, screaming in pain as he finally revealed his face. His eyes were squeezed shut, trying to block out the pain. He had very chiseled, defined features carved from his porcelain skin. His cheek bones were very defined around his slightly-but-not-too-sallow cheeks. His face turned red with the effort of shrieking the way a banshee undergoing torture might.

But I saw his face clearly, and there was only one thing going through my head once I did.

_No….No it can't be him….Oh God, this is entirely my fault._

I wasn't thinking, I didn't consider the consequences, I just knew I had to get between the whip and that man with the purple hair. I grabbed the edge of the platform –which was about my shoulder level- and pulled myself up. I heard a few screams of protest amongst the cheers for retribution, and soon everyone was calling out at me. The man with the wip didn't notice as he brought it down a second time on the tied man's back.

_Crack_

I froze, not knowing what I had been planning to do. I knew this was a bad idea, but now that I knew who was being whipped…I had to do something. He was screaming, his face a wreck of pain as he was tortured for his heritage.

_Crack_

"Kiyoteru! Get down you idiot!" I turned my head slightly to see my friends standing on the ground behind me, trying to get close enough to pull me off of the platform and back into the crowd. Mew, Meiko, Bruno, and Al all trying to push their way through the angry, giddy crowd that had given up chastising me and had returned all of their focus to the man being whipped.

"Did you hear your sister?" Al shouted, almost close enough to grab my ankle now. With his size, he could have latched onto my thigh. "Get back down here! What do you think you're doing?"

_Crack_

"AAARRGGHHH!" the whipping victim screamed in a voice that I swear awoke the dead. I knew that if I didn't move now, I would lose my chance and my friends would pull me back.

_Crack_

I turned back to face the man and sprinted toward him, ignoring the calls of my name echoing behind me. Without a plan, I did the first thing my instincts told me to; I threw myself in front of the unsuspecting man with the whip, who had been about to bring another blow down upon the now frayed skin of the poor man's back.

_Crack_

The whip cracked across my face, sending me sprawling in a cyclone of pain. I heard screams of my name, now more urgent and scared than demanding, but they meant nothing. I crawled over to the man with the bloody back, who was staring at me in unrecovered shock. Throwing myself over him, I became a human shield for his bloody back.

"Stop," I said, my eyes filled with tears as a result of the stinging pain that had been delivered across the side of my face. I tasted blood and noticed it dripping off of my face and onto the so called demon. "Don't hurt him."

"Kiyoteru! Get back here you damned fool!" I heard a new voice, Mew's, shout. "What so you think you're doing!"

"Don't be foolish, Hiyama." Now it was the priest's voice I heard. "This is a demon, he has admitted to his crimes of plotting against our church. Now step aside, or I will not take your sins lightly this time. I may have before for your sister's sake, but I am not one to pardon one who has already wasted his second chance."

I had my backside exposed, a perfect target for the whip. I bent over the long haired man, taking his hair and gently moving it out of the bloody lump of flesh that his back had become. There was a sharp intake of breath from the man as I helped him, but he didn't protest.

"Hiyama, if you do not move now, we will be forced to punish you the same way we had planned for this demon. Do you wish to take his punishment upon yourself?"

"No!" it was the first word I'd heard out of the man. The only sound his mouth had yielded before was those inhuman shrieks of pain as he was whipped. I reached out to touch his cheek, but in his rage he would have bitten my fingers off had I not pulled back before hie teeth could close.

"Yes." I said, standing and turning around. "Let this man go."

"Stop it Kiyoteru!" Meiko was on the platform, running toward me. I sighed internally, knowing this was going to be difficult. She ran up and threw her arms around me, almost as if I were her father and not her younger brother. "Don't do this! You can't save everyone who you see getting whipped, you don't even know this monster!"

"Release me, Meiko." I said sternly. "Meiko, let go of my shirt. Go back to everyone else."

"Stop acting this way!" she sobbed as I slowly peeled her from my chest. I could already feel the welt growing on the side of my face. I dragged her over to the side of the platform and handed her off to Al, who took her and set her down at his side. He looked up at me and handed me a look.

"Are you sure about this?" he asked quietly, holding onto Meiko's arm to keep her from doing anything else stupid.

"Yes." I said, nodding to my friends before walking back to the whipping post. I turned and gave the priest a hard stare. "I will take this man's punishment upon myself…"

"No!" he shouted again, struggling against his bindings. I ignored him.

"…I ask that he will be returned into the forest, where his kind has been known to dwell. He is to not be harmed by our people's hands again, despite his crimes."

The priest shook his withered head at me.

"I cannot determine if your acts are nobility or sin, Hiyama. However, we will do as you ask so long as you take the punishment yourself. Are you willing to do that?"

"More than so," I nodded determinedly. I was ready to take the punishment as long as it meant helping him.

The man with the whip and the other man who had dragged the purple headed demon from the stone jail began untying the bindings on his wrist. The monster struggled, shouting my name and other various commands against my decision to take the whipping for him. As he was dragged away, I unbuttoned my perfectly ironed brown shirt, tossing it carelessly onto the platform. Wrapping my arms around the whipping post, I stood perfectly still as a man came up from the crowd to tie me down. I could hear a faint sound from behind me, and I knew my older sister was crying, but this sound was nothing compared to the angry shouts of people wanting to see a demon punished. The whipping of the damned wasn't very common, and when it did happen, people wanted to see it. But I had stepped in the way and ruined it for all of them. The angry screams were no longer directed at the man, but at me. A large majority of our village already hated me, so I didn't see myself losing any respect from this. In fact, the only downside I saw was the fiery pain of the whip, which I felt that I could endure.

I _would _endure it. I had to, for his sake.

"Are you ready, Hiyama?" I heard the priest say from behind me. I responded without even trying to look at him.

"I have been ready this whole time."

"Very well…."

_Crack_

The first lash was a lick of fire to my nerves, causing me to shriek like a newborn child. I heard the crowd shouting a mixture of cheers and still angry threats, but I heard none of it over the sound of my own cry of pain.

_Crack_

I knew the punishment for demons was fifteen lashes, and he had already taken five of them. I had taken the sixth across my face when I got in the way, so there weren't going to be many more.

_Crack_

I howled as the burning fingers of the whip came down on my backside, squeezing my eyes shut and stomping one of my feet in agony. My breaths became shallow and vocal, ridden with pain and mixed in with a series of whining grunts. My eyes had been washed over with a blur of tears. I knew the pain had summoned them, and yet I felt ashamed. Many men were brought to tears on the platform as they were punished; I didn't know why I would have thought myself an acceptation.

_Crack_

Five more, I reminded myself. I clenched my teeth, forcing my eyes open and my head down. I stared at the wooden planks of the platform I stood on, wishing they would just get on with it. It was painful and humiliating to be whipped in front of my entire village, not that they all didn't despise me already. I could see my own blood on the ground around me, splattered by the whip.

_Crack_

Four more, I bit my tongue and kicked the whipping post I was bound to in order to keep from screaming anymore. I could hear Meiko's sobs of fear and pain from watching me hurt this way. The demon was still howling in protests, threatening the guards if they didn't stop whipping me and let him take his own punishment. I tried to telepathically tell him to shut up or we'd both be punished, but sadly I am unable to have any skills beyond that of a mundane being.

_Crack_

The purple haired man's voice was becoming more and more distant, and I knew they were doing as I had said and were taking him back into the forest. Good, he needed to get as far away from the village as possible. It was my fault he had been arrested, and he didn't deserve to watch as I was tortured, my back becoming a bloody lump of ripped flesh as it was slowly ripped apart with the octopus-like whip.

_Crack_

"Just a bit longer," I whispered to myself as motivation. I need to get through this without crumpling like a leaf under a child's foot in October. I hoped I could at least maintain my dignity as I was whipped into a gory pulp.

_Crack_

Just one more, the pain would be over soon. I couldn't hear the monster anymore, but Meiko's voice was screaming my name as loud as my nerves were screaming for mercy from the unforgiving whip. I hadn't wanted this, but it was nothing compared to the pain of watching him suffer.

_Crack_

I cried out one final time, trying to sink to my knees but held awkwardly by the ropes binding me to the whipping post. While I sobbed like a barely toddling babe, my bindings were sliced away and I fell to the ground, curling into a fetal position. I heard shouts and footsteps, but everything was just a part of the same drone to me as my head started to feel absent and light. Black hands grabbed and stretched around the edges of my vision, leading me to realize that I was losing an absurd amount of blood.

I heard familiar voices arguing above me, and soon there was a pair of muscled arms grabbing me from under my unharmed chest, exposing the frayed skin I knew was left on my back. I thought I heard someone retch as I was carried away, my neck limp and my eyes seeing only the ground. I knew the person vomiting was Prima; she had no stomach for gore.

Black spots appeared over my vision, and I let my eyelids fall closed. I didn't want to see the world slowly disappear from me, but instead I wanted to at least try to feel like I was falling asleep. Of course, sleep wouldn't have been possible with my back on fire.

With the last of my strength, I forced my eyes open and looked in the direction of the forest. I knew he would come back, probably to see if I was alright. He didn't give up easily, and it made me sick to think that he had been harmed at all, or that I had allowed it to happen. I never should have let him be hurt. I never should have let him near the village at all; he was just too perfect to hurt.

For a moment, after I closed my eyes again, I saw his face imprinted on the backs of my eyelids. I smiled a bit, despite my pain, and whispered in a voice no one would hear over the uproar of the crowd.

"You really did come back for me, even after what I did."

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**So this is a yaoi fanfic, if you haven't figured that out yet. Don't like it? Go away.**

**I am still working on "For Love or For Wealth," and I will be regularly updating that as well as this. I wasn't planning to start anything new until that was finished, but I got bored in Science class and started writing this, then I just had to keep it going! I fell in love with this pair after listening to "Drown and Lost" for the first time, and now I am uncontrollably shipping them. This obviously won't be as popular because of the less mainstream pairing, but I still shall write it!**

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**I ask questions at the ends of all my chapters. Answer in a review if you're feeling up to it!**

**Who is your yaoi/yuri OTP? (Vocaloid or anything else really)**

**How did you come across my story?**

**What compelled you to read my story?**

**Is this the first fanfic by me you've read?**

**Does this story have too much action too early? If you couldn't tell, I don't like slow beginnings. I like to get right into things!**

**Does the story seem like it will go somewhere?**

**Are there too many unanswered questions? Don't worry! Answers are coming your way!**

**Have you read any good fics about this pair that you can recommend to me? I CAN'T FIND ANY!**

**What is the really obvious similarity between all of the human characters mentioned so far?**

**I HAVE NINE FANFIC IDEAS ON MY COMPUTER AND NO TIME TO WRITE THEM ALL. HOW DO I DEAL WITH THIS?**

**Someone on tumblr called me their senpai! Should I feel fulfilled?**

**Do you plan to keep reading?**


	2. Chapter 2

Two

June 23, Fifteen Years Ago

The thin fuzz that had my shaggy brown hair had become felt odd under my calloused fingertips. There was a strange feeling to it as the warm breeze blew against my nearly-exposed scalp, but I found it kind of soothing as the sweat made it feel cooler and helped me fight the summer heat that beat down upon us all.

"Come on Kiyo!" Meiko called, turning around to run back to me. "Quit being so slow! They're all waiting for us!"

"I don't like running. I'm so bad at it it's faster to walk." I argued, crossing my arms over my seven year old chest as I spoke. Meiko sighed, despising my stubbornness, and grabbed onto my arm. "Hey!" I protested, but she ignored me, dragging me behind her as she ran.

After about a mile of running and complaining, we arrived in the small field just outside the forest. Waiting there were Al, Bruno, and Mew, all watching as Meiko ran up to them, pulling me, her awkward brother, behind her.

"Hi!" she called, releasing me and starting toward her friends. I fell to the ground, heaving like an overworked dog. Meiko saw him and spun around, putting her hands on her hips. "Oh get up lazy!"

"You made me run across the entire village! How are you not tired?" I whined, adjusting my glasses. I was nearsighted, yet another thing to make me inferior to my older, faster, stronger, more coordinated sister.

"Maybe if you came out and played more often, you wouldn't be so bad at running!" the little brown haired girl jeered, grabbing my arm and pulling me to my feet. Together we made our way over to the other children, who were seated and waiting for us.

"Hi Meiko!" Mew said, a grin lighting up her pale face. Seeing me, she added. "So you got him to come, huh?"

"It wasn't easy, but mama made him go out after she finished cutting his hair." Meiko explained, patting my head. I shoved her away, not wanting her to treat me like a baby.

"Nice hair, shorty." Bruno said with a laugh, pointing at me. I clenched my fists and growled, taking a step toward him before I felt a hand on my shoulder. Before I could turn to see who it belonged to, the hand pulled me under a slim, rough arm.

"Ah, stop teasing the kid, Bruno." The shoulder grabbed –who happened to be Al- said, rubbing Kiyoteru's arm. "We could both use haircuts like that."

"Whatever, I want to play!" Prima cried, her dark curls bouncing around along with the rest of her six year old body.

"We should play survival!" Meiko suggested. "Mew, Prima, Kiyo, and me can be lost in the forest, and Bruno and Al can be the wild animals we hunt!"

"I don't wanna be a wild animal." Bruno muttered. Meiko ignored him, grabbing Prima and Mew and pulling them close to her.

"Where can we play?" I asked, observing the wood chopping field around us. "All that's here is some dead grass and old logs. There's nowhere to hide."

"We can play in the forest, stupid." My sister laughed. "We do that all the time. You would know if you came out to play with us more often."

"But….but mama said we can't leave the village!" I protested. "There's monsters in there!"

"Oh please," Bruno said, rolling his eyes. "Meiko, you never told me your brother was such a baby."

"Lay off!" I shouted, pulling away from Al leaning toward Bruno, my tiny fists balled.

"Oh calm down, weirdo. I was just messing around." Bruno said, raising his hands up in surrender with a mocking laugh. I stuck my tongue out at him.

"Loosen up, Kiyoteru," Al said. "We always play there, and we've never seen any monsters. The grownups just make that stuff up to keep us from getting hurt in the trees or something, which we never have been." He added the last part after noticing the lack of change in my expression.

"C'mon!" Prima said, grabbing Mew and Meiko's hands and running off into the trees.

"Hey! Wait for me!" I shouted, running after the girls, leaving Bruno and Al behind in the field of dead grass and rotting wood. My thin legs pumped beneath me as I darted through the trees, dodging roots and low hanging branches as I followed the faint sight of Mew, Meiko, and Prima, who were steadily getting farther and farther away from me. "Wait up!" I called, catching their attention and causing them to pause, waiting for me to catch up.

"Hurry up slowpoke!" Prima said, giggling at me as she bounced around. "We need to find a shelter spot before the animals find us!"

"Should we go to the big tree by the rocks?" Mew asked, turning to Meiko.

"No!" Meiko said, placing her hands on her hips and standing over the rest of us. "I'm the leader of our survival group, and I say that we should go over by the pond to hide from the bad animals!" And with that, Meiko latched onto my upper arm again and started running again, dragging me along like one of her dolls. I tried to keep up, but the three girls were all faster than me.

We ran until we reached a small clearing, centered by a small pond. Meiko released by arm and ran over to a small cliff side that seemed enormous to our tiny child's eyes. It was dry and made of some kind of jagged rock, perfect for climbing.

And climb Meiko did. She scaled the eight or nine foot wall in minutes, and soon Prima and Mew were following her example. I stared up at them in awe and frustration.

"Meiko! You know I can't climb!" I shouted up at her. She looked at me over the edge, lying down so she could let her head dangle and see me better.

"Exactly, you're our lookout. You wait just outside the clearing and come tell us when they're coming. If they see you, you shout out loud so we can escape while they're busy getting you."

"So I'm your scapegoat." I muttered, having a vague understanding of what the word meant. But, knowing I had no other choice, I went back into the trees to fulfill my position.

"Make sure you're not seen!" Meiko called after me as I disappeared from her view into the trees. I sighed, wondering how I should go about doing my job. After a moment's thought, I decided on moving in circles around the clearing to make sure Bruno and Al didn't come from any alternate sides.

I'd only been walking for about five minutes when I heard it, a thick, rich howling sound. I'd heard this kind of sound before, but only from a great distance. It was the kind of howling you only heard from your bedroom at night as you tried to go to sleep and ignore it. From that perspective, it was distant and not to be worried about.

But this time, the noise seemed to be not three feet away. Not even bothering to turn around, I started sprinting in the opposite direction of the howl. There was a loud rustling sound and a feral growl, and the next thing I knew it hit me from behind. I screamed as it took me down, snarling and drooling as it stood dominantly on top of my back. I tried to call out for help, but I couldn't take a breath. The huge animal, whatever it was, had knocked the wind out of me when it collided with my back.

Suddenly, I felt a sharp pain as something punctured my shoulder. I screamed silently, tears running down my face as I panicked. I was going to die here, at the hands of some animal, all because I had disregarded my parents warnings just to go out and play with a couple of kids my sister wanted me to be friends with.

Just as I braced myself for the animal to rip my flesh out of my shoulder, it's teeth were abruptly yanked from my skin. The weight on my back suddenly disappeared, allowing me to roll over and see what was going on.

The animal was unconscious and lying against a tree, a tall boy standing over it. He looked maybe a year or two my senior, his hands and shirt splattered in blood. Running on pure instinct, I scooted back from the boy until my back met a large tree, enticing a new wave of panic.

The boy turned, looking at me with an expression of worry. He started walking toward me without a word, holding his hands out steadily.

_He's afraid that I'm going to get away before he can kill me. He wants to do something bad to me._

"Please!" I begged, throwing my hands over my face as if it should stop the advancing boy. "Please don't hurt me!"

I heard the crunching of leaves under the boy's feet stop abruptly. Ever so slowly, I pulled my hands away from my face, revealing the tall boy to my eyes.

I took a good, long look at him. He had long, purple hair that stretched to his shoulders. It was beautiful in a way I had never seen on anyone in our village, girl or otherwise. His eyes were a dark blue-violet, looking at me quizzically and sadly. He had very defined features, even for a child. His skin was a shimmering porcelain, shining not with sweat -as most people were this time of year- but with a sort of natural glimmer.

"I'm not going to hurt you." The boy took another hesitant step toward me, holding up the hands covered in what I now realized was _my _blood. I took my eyes from the stunning boy for a moment to assess my injury.

The flesh was ripped and the skin was frayed. The pain was slowly growing in magnitude as more and more blood oozed out. I cringed away from it only to see that the boy was standing just above me, his hands still held out in front of me. I stared at him for a moment, wondering what he was about to do.

Without a word, he kneeled down next to me, pulling a small rag out of his pocket. I watched as he started shuffling around in a small circle on his knees, grabbing various plants and pulling off different parts; a root from here, some berries from there, etc. He collected them all, mashing them together with his small, boyish hands. Once he'd squished all of them into a paste, he smeared it on the rag and came back over to me, hovering it just above my wound.

"This might sting a little." He warned as he started to dab the paste onto the bite on my arm. I winced at the minor burning sensation that came as he spread the brownish plant mixture. Once he was done, though, the stinging had faded into a cool, relaxing kind of feeling.

"Th-thank you!" I stuttered, still afraid of the boy. He looked so different from anyone I'd seen in the village. It was disturbing….yet also alluring somehow.

"I'm not done." He said, removing his bloody shirt. I stared in confusion for a moment, wondering what he could possibly be doing now. The boy assessed the shirt for a moment before choosing the cleanest part and beginning to rip strips of it off. I watched as he used the strips of fabric to wrap my shoulder, a makeshift bandage.

Interested as I tried to be in the boy's work, I couldn't help but leave my eyes lingering on him. He was even more beautiful without his shirt on, his shiny pale skin hugging lightly defined muscles, despite his young age. His long purple hair hung in his face, longer than my sister had even let her hair grow. She liked her hair short, but I liked people who had long hair. It was pretty, and I desperately wanted hair like it. But my mother had forbade it, chopping my hair short often to keep me looking like a boy.

"There, all better." He said, leaning back to admire his work. I looked at it too, surprised with how neat the strips of his shirt looked tied around my shoulder. A bit of blood was seeping through, but that was to be expected with any bandaging work. In short, the once disgusting bite had become almost as beautiful as the boy helping me bind my wounds.

"Thank you! Thank you so much!" I turned and looked over at the unmoving animal, and for a moment my stomach rolled like bread dough. "Is it…dead?"

The boy turned and looked at the animal that had been about to kill me a moment before.

"I guess it is."

"Oh."

I was silent for a moment, wondering if Al and Bruno had found the girls yet. They would probably get pretty mad at me for going missing and not warning them of the "wild animals'" approach. If only they knew that I had just been attacked by a real wild animal myself.

The boy sat down in front of me, giving me a curious look. I stared back in confusion, wondering why he was staring at me in that way. He seemed to be searching for something, his eyes almost….interrogating.

"Umm….do you want something?" I asked awkwardly, feeling slightly uncomfortable.

"Sorry if I'm making you uncomfortable." The boy said, pushing his long bangs from his eyes. "It's just…..I've never been this close to a human before."

"Wait….what?" I was confused. Was he playing with me? What was he talking about? "Aren't you human?"

The boy laughed. "Have you ever seen a human with hair like this?"

I shrugged quietly, feeling embarrassed. I knew his not being human should have scared me, but I sort of found that it only made this boy more interesting.

"Well," I finally spoke up after a minute or two. "How would you like to be friends with a human?" I grinned, getting to my feet and bending over him, the way my sister often did with her friends and with me. I extended my hand, an offering of friendship.

He looked up at me, his expression slightly surprised. But it wasn't long before he smiled and took me hand, allowing me to pull him to his feet. Despite his large size, he was lighter than most other children I knew. Grinning at each other, I took his hand and tried to pull him toward there the pond was.

"Come on! I want you to meet my other friends!"

I expected him to run along behind me the way I had with Meiko pulling me, but he stood stock still, not budging as I tried to pull him. Of course, the second I felt his resistance, I stopped pulling and turned around, feeling confusion and disappointment bubble up inside me. He turned around, his bare porcelain back facing me as he hung his head.

"I can't." he said, his voice ridden with sadness.

"Why not?" I asked, placing a hand on his shoulder.

"I'm not supposed to be talking with humans. I shouldn't even be talking to you." He turned, reaching out to me for a moment before thinking better of it and letting his hand fall to his side. "If my sisters find out, they'll tell my mom."

"I have a sister too!" I said excitedly. But the spark of energy soon dwindled. "But if you aren't supposed to talk to humans, then why did you help me?"

He smiled at me for a fleeting second before turning and starting toward the direction opposite me.

"Wait!" I called, causing him to stop and look back at me. I took a deep breath. "We're friends now, and friends have to see each other, right? They have to play together, so that's exactly what we're gonna do! I shouldn't be here either, my mama says I'm not allowed to go into the forest. But does it matter if we break the rules as long as we're not caught?"

He looked at me for a second as if he were trying to decide if I was serious or not. But after a second of thought, he gave me a big, goofy grin.

"Yeah, alright!" he said. "We can play together. It will be our little secret! I'll meet you here tomorrow, okay?"

"Okay!" I said, returning his grin. He looked at me a second longer before whirling and flying off into the trees, leaving me standing, staring off in his direction.

"Kiyo!"

"Kiyoteru!"

"Hey! Little brother! Kiyo!"

"Hey! I see him! He's over here!"

I turned around to see Mew standing not twenty feet away, pointing in my direction. I watched, unmoving, as everyone else soon appeared around her and ran in my direction.

Meiko was the first to reach me, slamming into me with the force of the large animal from before. I coughed, nearly falling to the ground as she pulled me into a bear hug.

"I was so scared! What happened? Why weren't you there when Bruno and Al came?" she noticed my bandaged shoulder. "What's that? Did you get hurt? Who fixed you?"

"Calm down Meiko! I can only answer so many questions at once!" I shoved her off me, turning to look at Al, who was examining the dead animal by the tree.

"You kill this thing, Kiyoteru?" he asked, turning to me.

"No! It was some boy. That animal attacked me and bit my shoulder, but he saved me and fixed me! Look!" he pointed to the bloody cloth bandages on his arm, which didn't seem as beautiful now that the purple haired boy was gone. They didn't seem like anything more than bloody lumps of cloth ties tightly around my shoulder.

"Who was he? What did he look like?" Mew asked, examining my shoulder closely.

"I…" the image of the boy stained itself across my mind, refusing to leave. But there was something telling me I shouldn't tell them what he said about not being human. "I dunno. He looked like every other boy in the village, but I don't think he was from around here. He had a weird accent, you know?" I t was a crude lie, but it was the best he could come up with on the spot.

"Weird." Prima said, looking at the dead animal. "I think my dad told me what there are called. I A woof or wolf or something like that,"

"I'm sorry for making you come here, Kiyoteru." Meiko said, her face flushed. "You were right about it being dangerous."

"We should find somewhere else to play…" Mew began.

"No!" I shouted suddenly, making a few of them jump. I felt my cheeks heat up. "I mean….you guys said nothing bad ever happened before right? This seemed like a one-time thing that just happened to me because I was careless and didn't know what I was doing. We should come back tomorrow!"

"Well, someone's feeling better." Al teased, enticing me to stick out my tongue once again. We all laughed, feeling lighthearted once again at my new burst of positivity.

We played in the forest for another hour or so before heading home, the setting sun our signal for retreat. As we ran back through the trees toward the large forest clearing that housed our village, I couldn't help but think of the wide, adorable grin on the face of the other boy. He was strange, but it wasn't the kind of strange that scared you away.

It just made him want to see him even more.

...

September 3, Ten Years Ago

"I've been waiting for you."

I smiled at him. He was always so patient with me, even when he tried to act like he wasn't. Seeing him angry or frustrated was a rare sight, but not one that anyone wanted to see.

"It's nice to see you after being away for so long. It's hard to find time to see each other now that I'm in school so much of the time."

"No matter where you go, I'll always be here waiting for you, Kiyoteru."

"That's a nice thing to be able to hold onto. I'll never go anywhere too far without returning to you, that's a promise."

He smiled a faint, pained smile. It wasn't his usual grin, and it didn't seem right. It was like it didn't quite fit onto his face. It worried me; was there something wrong?

"Gakupo?" I asked the boy. He looked up at me with slight surprise at the sound of his name, as if I'd just pulled him out of some deep void of thought. "Gakupo, are you alright?"

He sighed before leaning back against an old, rotting tree. I watched him, expecting a response to my question. He closed his eyes and began to breathe deeply and evenly, almost like he was sleeping. But I knew better. We'd been friends for five years, and I wasn't easily fooled by his strange actions.

"Hey! Stop that!"

He opened one eye. "Stop what?"

"You always do that! Whenever I ask you something you don't want to answer, you just lie down and pretend to sleep! Why are you always doing that?"

Gakupo laughed, slowly sitting back up. He was always acting so bizarrely, but maybe this kind of thing was normal for his people. Whatever it was, it had become normal to me.

"Kiyoteru, I don't want you to worry about anything, alright?" he said, putting an arm around me and rubbing my shoulder. "Everything's fine, alright? You need to just relax."

But I couldn't relax, not knowing he was lying through his teeth. I hated when he was like this, when he obviously had a problem but wouldn't let me help him. I knew he just didn't want to worry me, but it was upsetting me that he was in pain, but didn't want me to assist him.

"I don't want to relax." I said, looking up at him. "I want you to stop feeling so miserable all the time." He opened his mouth to respond, but I beat him to it. "And don't tell me you aren't. I've known you long enough to tell when you're upset. Why won't you let me…."

I didn't get a chance to finish my sentence. The next thing I knew, he had grabbed me around my neck and pulled me into an embrace. It was nothing odd, we'd hugged before, but there was something different about this time. It was something in the way that he wasn't there to show friendship or to comfort, but he seemed like he _wanted _something. I wasn't sure how to react at first, but quickly found myself wrapping my arms around him and pulling him in as hard as I could. He responded eagerly, tightening his grip on me and pressing his face into my chest. He was still taller than me, but I sat up much straighter than him.

Then he did the last thing I expected.

Gakupo pulled his face out of my shirt, stared at me for a moment, then –at what seemed to be lightning speed- cupped his hands around my cheeks and pulled my lips to meet his.

Any bit of rationality or thought was jarred out of me. Internally I was a mess of panic and excitement, wanting more from my friend, yet knowing I shouldn't at the same time. He kissed me for a moment before trying to pull away, but I didn't let him, keeping my arms around his body like bars of iron. He was stronger than me, so it was more of an invitation than it was force.

But Gakupo accepted, moving his mouth against mine with so much passion, I never wanted to pull away. But after a moment, he did. Staring straight at me with those violet-blue eyes filled with so much pain. Immediately I felt guilty for kissing him, like I had committed some kind of sin.

I had.

"This is wrong." He said, pulling away from me and getting to his feet. "I shouldn't have done that. I'm sorry, my friend."

"Don't be." I stood up behind him, staring into the back he had turned to me. "We shouldn't have been friends in the first place, but we've been meeting here for the last five years undetected. I don't know about your people, but to humans, a man feeling love for another man is a sin and a crime. I honestly don't care one bit. I should, but I don't."

Gakupo laughed a rich, deep laugh, turning around to face me.

"Kiyoteru, did you just admit you love me?"

I laughed with him, though mine was much lighter and shakier.

"I'm only twelve years old. What do I know about love?"

"I see. Should I wait until you're thirteen to ask then?"

I smiled. "Why? Do you love me?"

He grinned. "Should a boy of fourteen years be able to claim such a thing?"

"How should I know?"

"Well," he took advantage of his superior height and rumpled my hair. "If I am able to understand love, then I'm going to say I love you, Kiyoteru."

"You don't have to use my whole name, you know." I informed him. "You can use the nickname my sister gave me when we were children."

"And what would that be?"

"She calls me Kiyo, and so do my human friends." I reached up and touched his face. "You can call me that if you want."

"I think I like Kiyoteru better." He said, smiling as if everything were normal again. "It suits you. Kiyo sounds too childish for you. Kiyoteru is a man's name."

"I'm no man." I said, hanging my head. "If anyone's a man here, it's you."

Gakupo laughed again, a hearty and vocal sound. He almost sounded like an adult.

"My people see humans as filthy murderers and abusive sinners." He said sadly. "Your holy book deems us demons, spirits of the damned. You are probably the first human in years to ever think differently."

"I have never met anyone of your kind beside you, but if you're all this wonderful…" I leaned forward, touching my forehead to his chest. "Then I have no idea what is wrong with humans."

"Kiyoteru?"

"Yes?"

"May I…kiss you again?"

I grinned. There was something about seeing the boy who was usually so calm and strong blushing and flustered that made me feel even closer to him. To answer his question, I straightened up and planted a small peck on his lips. But as I pulled back, he grabbed me around my waist and pulled me into him, his mouth coming down on mine with a crushing force. I pushed back with my lips, turning our kiss into a sort of war between us, _who could kiss harder?_

Eventually, I reluctantly pulled away from him. He grinned triumphantly, not letting me go at first. We held each other close, noses touching while we laughed and smiled. But I still had to pull away, knowing that the sun was falling over the horizon.

"I need to go." I said, feeling a twinge of pain as his expression melted into sadness and disappointment. I tried to cheer him up by reminding him I would always come back, but he still didn't want to leave. Eventually, he refused to let go of me until I promised that the next time I saw him, I would give him another kiss just like the one we'd just shared. I made the promise without a second thought, touching his face and smiling until he finally let me go.

"Goodbye, my friend." He said, watching me as I walked away.

"Bye, Gakupo."

* * *

**Sorry for the sucky chapter. I need to define their characters a little more.**

**Question Time!**

**Did this chapter bore you out of your mind?**

**Did this chapter have age appropriate diction? (were the children talking like children?)**

**Did that second part where the boys confessed their love seem too rushed? **

**Was five years too big of a time skip?**

**Can you see what I'm doing by jumping around through time?**

**Do you like this pairing?**

**Was this chapter absolutely awful?**

**Where do you see their relationship going?**

**How will this all lead up to what happened in the first chapter?**

**Was this chapter too short?**

**Do I need to get a life?**

**I should be watching my little brother right now, but I'm here. Meh, he's just playing minecraft.**

**Bye bye!**


	3. Chapter 3

Three

August 28, Seven Years Ago

"What do you think is out there?"

Gakupo raised his head at the question, looking puzzledly at me where I lay beside him on the soft, mossy forest floor.

"What do you mean, Kiyoteru?"

"I mean, there has to be more out there beyond the forest, right? It doesn't just go on forever. Aren't there other people out there beside us? More humans or more of your kind, isn't that possible?"

Gakupo rolled onto his side and propped his head up on his arm, cocking his head to the side as he though it over. I watched him, unmoving from the soft pile of moss I had my backside turned into.

"Maybe more humans, but there couldn't be any more of us." The purple haired boy reached across his face and pushed the loose strands of hair out of his eyes. He had taken to tying his long hair, which now almost reached his hips, back into a long tail. I liked it better down, but I knew it inconvenienced my friend, so I let him do what he wanted.

"Why is that?" I wondered out loud, turning my head to face him, but still I was too lazy to fully rise.

"We would be in touch with them. Our people aren't as reserved and alienating as yours. We try to communicate with each other as much as possible, and we would know if there were others of us out there. However, I do think that there might be more humans beyond the forest; your village just isn't social enough to find them."

I leaned back, looking up at the canopy of branches as I thought about what he had said. It was mostly true, but I was wondering if he was right, or if his theories were too based off of stereotypes to be accurate. It was true that we humans were afraid of the unknown to try and discover what was beyond the seemingly endless forest, but was that necessarily true, or were humans just so sure that the forest went on forever, that they didn't waste their time looking for something they thought to be nonexistent?

I suddenly felt Gakupo's hand fall gently on top of mine, catching me by surprise and turning my cheeks a strange shade of red. He saw my flustered expression and laughed his masculine laugh, which was growing more mature by the day. Was he really already seventeen? In a few years, I would be expected to marry and find an occupation, and he and I wouldn't be able to see each other anymore.

He noticed my worried expression, his brow creasing and his smile evaporating. He sat up, clasping my hand in his as if I were his dying mother.

"What's wrong, my friend?" he asked, his mysterious violet-blue eyes searching mine, only to find the same thing they had been finding for the past eight years.

"Nothing, I was just thinking about the future." I sat up beside him, not meeting his gaze. "We can't keep this up forever, you know? In a few years, I'm going to have to find a job…..and my family will expect me to marry….."

"You can't!" the calm boy was suddenly frantic, clutching my hand as if I might fade away in an instant, never for him to see again. "You can't just…..leave…."

"Relax, Gakupo. I'm only fifteen, not yet of age to be wed in our village. I am already unable to visit as often because of school, but we should enjoy what time we still have together."

The tall boy with the purple hair grabbed me around my waist, dragging me into a hug. I embraced his shaking body, patting his back as he began to weep into my shirt.

"I love you, you foolish human." He whispered between sobs. "How about you? Have you made up your mind yet? You haven't kissed me since that day, and it's been years. Too many years for me," He pulled away from the embrace, but still held fast to my shoulders. His intense gaze burned into my eyes, yet I found myself unable to look away. "Kiyoteru Hiyama, do you love me?"

I stared at him for a moment, unsure of what exactly to think. His stare was unwavering, obviously waiting for a response. I held his gaze, afraid to disappoint him in some way. I still found myself remaining unsure, and yet….I wasn't sure if I could bear to let him down. He wanted his answer, and he wanted it now. The only question was, did I love him? Could a fifteen year old boy be sure about something so gentle, so tender that it was only discussed by adults? I was a refined, level headed child, more mature than my peers, but I was still a child all the same. I was nothing like my passionate, rambunctious sister, but I wasn't anything like my calm, placid father either. But Gakupo wanted an answer, and I was going to give it to him.

I fell onto the older boy, constricting his torso as I sank my face into the boy's chest.

"I _do _love you, you ridiculous bastard." I murmured, squeezing him tight. "I love you more than anyone I have ever met. I love you more than my sister, my parents, my friends, or my home. You are my life, and you have been forever. I would trust you with my life and any of my possessions, because they have no value next to you. I love you, and I want to stay with you forever. Please, don't be upset."

Gakupo laughed in the midst of his tears. "Upset? You're the one crying, on my chest, aren't you?"

"Oh, stop it." I sat up, laughing as I wiped away the tears that had soaked my cheeks. "You don't need to be like that, this is serious. What are we going to do?"

"We could run away." He whispered, roughly pulling me into his arms. He was a strong man, and that wasn't something I disliked about him. "We could leave your village and mine behind, and get as far away from here as possible."

"No," I immediately rejected the idea, despite how tempting it was. "My family needs me, and yours needs you. Your sisters would be lost without you, you know that."

"Luka and Gumi can handle themselves, and Meiko and your parents too." He brushed our relatives aside without a second thought, tightening his grip as he pulled me closer to him. "We could do it, you know. I know how too survive out there, and I could protect you. And if we ran into other humans, you're smart enough to know what to do."

"I want to Gakupo. Trust me, I do. But we can't do that." I used the one free arm I had to grab his neck pulling his head down to kiss me.

But the second our lips touched, there was a gasp from behind one of the trees.

Gakupo didn't seem to notice, as he immediately started roughly moving his mouth against mine, biting playfully at my lips. I pushed away, and immediately he grabbed onto me, trying to pull me back into a kiss.

"Wait," I placed a finger to his mouth, a signal to remain silent. We both held out breath, listening for anything suspicious. It wasn't even a minute later when Gakupo pointed toward a tree.

"I can hear someone behind there. We're being watched, my friend."

"Hey!" I shouted, pulling away from Gakupo and stepping as menacingly toward the tree as I could. "Who's back there? Show yourself, you coward!"

There was a moment of silence before a high pitched gasp and a quick series of crunching footsteps on fallen leaves. I saw as the source of this noise dashed away from the tree, covered by a cloak.

Without thinking, I immediately gave chase. Gakupo didn't protest, and I was sure I head his heavy breaths and footfalls as he raced after me, joining me in the pursuit for our little spy.

Soon he had passed me, and I found myself cheering him on as I ran, my sprint quickly slowing as I used up the air in my lungs. Before I knew it, Gakupo had overtaken the cloaked figure, tackling it to the ground. It didn't give much of a struggle, so he practically crushed it. I slowed to a jog as I approached them, steaming with fury at whoever had discovered our secret.

Gakupo sat on top of the pitifully struggling body, scowling down at it. Just as I appeared next to him, he ripped off the cloak, revealing a long curtain of black hair and milky white skin.

"_Mew?" _My jaw dropped at the sight of my childhood friend, lying helplessly beneath my inhuman love. She made a small sound, as if she was in pain, and I realized that she couldn't breathe. "Hey, don't put all your weight on her. We don't want to kill her."

"She was watching us! She heard us!" Gakupo was in a rage, a disturbed fury I had never seen from him before. I had always seen his kind as gentle, docile creatures, but Gakupo looked ready to go to war. It was a side of him I had never seen before, and I was scared…..yet at the same time, I was…..mesmerized.

"Please, please don't kill me." Mew whimpered, visibly shaking underneath Gakupo. "I won't tell anyone, I swear! Kiyo! Kiyo please call the demon off! Tell the monster to stop!"

"What are you calling me?" Gakupo grabbed the girl by her neck, lifting his weight off her slightly so that she wasn't being crushed. "I am no monster, little girl. And Kiyoteru does not control me. I do what I want, and if I want to kill you…."

"Gakupo please," I laid a hand on his shoulder, trying to calm him down. "Don't kill her. We can figure something out…."

"She's going to tell them, Kiyoteru." Gakupo said harshly, not even turning to look at me. "She's going to tell everyone in your village. They will reject you! They will hurt you! I'm not about to let anyone touch you!"

"It's not worth it! You can't kill someone just to keep a secret! It's….it's…"

"It's what, Kiyoteru? Wrong? Amoral? Isn't that what they will say when they find out? Not only do your people punish the love between two men, but it will be all the more painful when they learn what _kind _of man. I'm not about to risk that."

"Gakupo…."

"They'll kill you! It's kill her or run away!"

"I won't tell! I won't tell I swear!"

"Shut your mouth!" Gakupo raised his fist, causing Mew to shriek. Gakupo immediately changed directions, clapping his hand over her mouth instead of bashing her head in. I stood, frozen and conflicted. Mew was my friend, and I wasn't about to let her die. But at the same time, hadn't I just said that I loved Gakupo more than anyone, even my closest friends? I did, but was I about to let him kill someone –a girl even- just to keep our secret.

"Gakupo," I tried to keep my voice level and even, gentle enough to keep him from snapping at me. "Even if you kill her, people will realize she's missing. It would just prove everything the humans have already assumed about you, and they might come after your people, you family. Think of your sisters, would you really want them to suffer to keep our secret?"

"You said you loved me more than your family, didn't you?"

I nodded.

"Well then you deserve the same affection in return."

"Is that fair to them? Or to anyone who may die if a war is sparked?"

He turned to face me, his wild purple hair askew and fluttering in the wind. He looked like some sort of beautiful madman, a warrior prince of the woodlands. Mew was a picture of absolute horror, but she was nothing to look upon compared to him. She was a wreck, yet he was still perfection despite his fury. In fact, there was something about this new, violent, angry side of Gakupo that I found myself liking. No, _loving _was a better word.

"Kiyoteru," he said, looking to the ground. "I love you. And if you think we can trust this woman, than I will respect your opinion. Do you think her trustworthy?"

"Give me a moment," I walked around to the other side of them so that Gakupo faced me. Mew whimpered from underneath him, but she drew her face up from where it pressed into the dirt and dead leaves to look at me, her eyes filled with fear and despair.

"Kiyoteru…." Her voice was a fading whisper, and I realized why. I looked to Gakupo, but he had apparently realized it too. He stood from where he sat on her back, stepping away from her quivering body.

"Mew," I placed a hand on her shoulder, trying to calm her down. "Mew, listen to me. This is important. What you saw just now, you know it's wrong, don't you?"

She nodded, a spastic, jerking motion, fueled by passionate, panicked tears. She seemed eager to get our confrontation over with.

"Right, and do you know what they will do to me if you told anyone about it?"

Another nod, this one slower and more solumn.

"You don't want that to happen to me, do you?" a third set of nods came as Mew pushed herself into a sitting position, peering fearfully over her shoulder at Gakupo. "Thank you," I continued. "So will you keep our secret, Mew? I know it's wrong, and it goes against everything we've been taught, but I love this man. You can keep this between us, right?"

"Yes," her voice was a squeak of terror, her throat too filled up with throat to create a proper phrase.

"Thank you, Mew. You have no idea how important this is." I hugged her, which led to a frustrated and disapproving scowl from Gakupo. I laughed it off, still jittery and nervous. He seemed to have calmed down enough, but just to make sure, I pulled away from Mew and walked to his side, taking his hands and clasping them inside mine. He smiled with tight lips, bending slightly to kiss my forehead. He had always been taller than me, but our teenage growth had been kinder to him than it had to me. He towered over almost everyone I knew, but maybe people like him grew differently than humans.

"I hope you made a wise decision." He whispered to me in a voice just low enough to keep Mew from hearing.

"I wouldn't decide anything without thinking of you first, my friend." I stared up into his mysterious eyes, glinting with a strange color I had only seen in his irises. They were odd and foreign to any human other than me, but I loved the way he looked at me with those intriguing eyes.

"'My friend' isn't exactly appropriate any more, now is it?" he said with a smile, brushing my shaggy brown hair out of my eyes. I needed a haircut soon, I realized, unless I wanted to look like Gakupo.

"I suppose not." I agreed, smiling at him. He seemed to be back to his old self again, and it was almost as if Mew wasn't even there.

"Then how about 'my love'? Or is that too cliché?"

"It's perfect." I told him, raising his hands to my lips and kissing his fingertips. "Then I will always think of you first, my love."

I tried to pull him in to kiss him, but he stopped me abruptly, placing a halting hand on my chest. I frowned at him; he had never stopped me from kissing him before. He gave me a hard look in response to my confused one, leaving me baffled and speechless. After a moment of staring, he finally spoke.

"I'm not going to let her watch me kiss you again. I've been waiting three years for this, and I don't want her ruining it." He jerked his head toward Mew, who was still kneeling on the ground with a fearful stare at the two of us. She was obviously more scared of Gakupo than she was interested in our affairs, so she scrambled awkwardly to her feet and dashed off in the direction of the forest, heading for home. I knew she would keep her promise, but I still worried. No one had ever shared our secret before, and we had no idea how this would play out.

Gakupo snaked his arms around me seconds after Mew had vanished. Before I could even get my own skinny arms around him, his lips were on mine. I didn't feel babied, as I always had as the shorter one between the two of us. But now he was acting differently. He was the passionate, angry Gakupo again, pushing at my mouth and biting at my lips, trying to overpower me. I pushed back against him, moving my mouth against his without any rhyme or reason. We bit, we drooled, we even tasted each other's tongues. It was the kind of thing that seemed repulsive with just its description, but in that moment, I loved it more than anything. It was pleasant; no, more than that. It was _wonderful. _It was different from anything I had ever experienced before, even Gakupo's past kisses. This one had more…..feeling in it, more desire from both of us for the other. It made me feel loved and cared for in a way that neither my family nor friends had ever made me feel. Maybe this was it. I knew now, for sure.

I loved him.

After an unknown span of time that I felt just wasn't long enough, he pulled away with a light chuckle, running his hands through my hair. Impulsively, I tried to pull him back in, but he pushed me back gently with one hand on my shoulder, the other still messing my hair.

"That's enough, my love." He said with a laugh, deep and masculine. "We can't go on forever, and I need to be getting home."

I grabbed him, pulling him in as close as I possibly could. Despite the millions of times we had parted ways here in the forest, I felt monumentally worse at this separation. I didn't want to leave him, as if I were a child awakening to an early morning of chores in a cold house, not wanting to abandon their bed and blanket.

"Don't leave." I whispered, tightening my grip on him. I felt reliant on him, like now that I'd had a taste of what he had to offer, I wasn't ready to let him go away. I now knew how he had felt for the last several years, able to understand the feelings I had been drowning in, lost in my own confused feelings. But everything was clear now, and I knew exactly what I wanted.

"If I had known you would desire me so badly after I kissed you like that, I would have told you to give me an answer sooner." He laughed, attempting to pry me from his body. After several moments of failed attempts, however, he gave a slight frown. "Kiyoteru, I need you to let go of me."

"If I let go, you'll leave."

"I know, that is why you need to release me."

"Do you have to go?"

He laughed, but there was a bit of impatience in his chuckles.

"You're acting like a child." He said, trying to force my arms off of him again. He was undoubtedly stronger than me, but I was still strong enough to hold onto him. "Wait," he lowered his lips to my ear, his voice becoming a whisper. "Does this mean you're willing to take me up on my offer and run away?"

I immediately released him, not wanting to give him any more ideas. He laughed again, but there was a sort of disappointment in his eyes, as if he was hurt that I wasn't ready to run away from civilization with him.

"I'm not ready for that yet. I want to stay here as long as I can before we leave. I need to make sure my sister turns out alright, finds a husband and such. My parents aren't going to be around for her forever, you know. And my friends….."

"But you will do it?" he asked, his tone suddenly hopeful. I smiled and nodded, my eyes dripping with tears for an unknown reason. He grinned at me, looking devilish and mischievous at having seen my agreement to his plan. He didn't look like he was about to forget it, and neither was I. But I still had Meiko to worry about, and our father was desperately ill and would likely be dead soon. I needed to be there during that as support for them, and I could wait before ripping myself out of their lives to keep Gakupo happy. I knew it would kill us both if I couldn't come to see him anymore, but I had time, and I was going to use it to its full extent.

"Goodbye, Kiyoteru."

"Farewell, Gakupo."

Leaving him hurt, but in that moment, I didn't know what pain was.

Not yet.

…

November 18, That Same Year

"How much longer do you keep expecting me to keep this secret?" Mew moaned, her nails digging into my shoulder. "I can't stand it!"

"Forever," I responded bluntly, frustrated that she was distracting me. I had to put all my focus into my work, and she wasn't exactly helping. "If you tell, I'll be in trouble, Gakupo will be in trouble, and you will be as well. You're keeping illegal affairs a secret, and that is punishable, even if you are the one to give us up. You're part of this now, Mew, and it's your own fault for being so curious."

"That's ignorant." She commented, crossing her arms. "I have no control over my own curiosity. You had been disappearing into the forest at every chance you got for the last eight years, why wouldn't I think to follow you?"

"If you have no control over your curiosity, then I suggest you learn some." I said, scribbling on a bit of parchment paper. "And is this really an appropriate time for this conversation? I'm busy."

"Your mother is out working, and Meiko is with Bruno." Mew said, "This was one of the only times I could get you alone and talk to you."

"Why don't you just catch me while I'm on my way into the forest?"

She flinched, an involuntary grimace awkwardly scrunching up her face.

"I don't want to end up running into _him._" She whispered, her voice shaking with the memory of Gakupo and the terror he had caused her. "He frightens me."

"He isn't usually so violent. It was his instinct to protect what he loves, and he saw you as a threat to me and my safety. He knows about our justice system, and he knows the punishment for associating with his kind, as well as feeling love toward another man. He thought he was protecting me, but he isn't a naturally aggressive creature."

"He still wanted to kill me." Mew reminded me. "Even though I said I wouldn't tell, he wanted to kill me to make sure. If that isn't aggression to you, then I think you should rethink your life."

"He was willing to go to any measures to ensure my safety." I insisted, defending the purple haired young man. "If that meant killing a stranger, then so be it! And besides, he willingly stepped aside to let me talk to you, didn't he? He trusted my judgment, but if he was a mindless killer, he would have gone ahead and killed you anyway!"

"He's a monster, Kiyoteru! Nothing is ever going to change that! You can't ignore the fact that you're in love with a demon! You shouldn't be like this, loving a man! He's affecting you somehow!"

"Stop saying these things! You have no idea what you're talking about!"

"No, you don't know who you are anymore. You've spent too much of your life with this man, and he's destroying you! You don't know who you are anymore! He's manipulating you for his own selfish reasons, but you're too deeply affected to see it!"

"You're wrong!" I shouted, shoving the chair I sat on to the side. I stepped toward her, raising my hand above my head in preparation to strike. She flinched away from the attack, stumbling backward. I hesitated, seeing the fear in her eyes. I had never harmed a woman before, and I wasn't about to do so now.

Sighing deeply, I lowered my hand to my side. Mew looked up, her fear immediately turning to relief.

"At least he hasn't affected you so badly that you would turn on your friends."

I ignored her, falling back into my chair and turning back to my schoolwork, which sat on the old wooden desk that had been sitting in my bedroom longer than I had known Gakupo. Most boys usually left school by the time they were my age, but I was doing extra studying, hoping to learn medicine. I had always thought it would be nice to know the technical part of healing, which might be useful in addition to Gakupo's material understanding of it. I continued to work, pretending to be oblivious of Mew's existence beside me. Eventually I heard the sound of her sighing and walking away, her wooden shoes tapping on the floorboards as she left my house, the heavy door closing behind her.

I tried to resume my work, but my mind was too jumbled up with everything Mew had said. Was she going to tell someone? Would she really give us away because of an unsupported theory? Then another issue bubbled up in my brain.

What is she was right?

Could it be true? Had Gakupo been lying to me and playing with my emotions for his own personal gain? Was my love for him all a lie he had implanted in my head? Was he really a demon, and he only wanted to watch me suffer?

No, that was impossible. If he didn't care about me, then why had he saved me from that wolf when we met? Why had he gone out of his way to attack Mew and threaten to kill her, seeing her as a threat to my safety? If he didn't care about me the way I did about him, he wouldn't have kissed me that way he did in the forest several months ago, right?

Right?

I shook my head, running my hands through my hair. I needed to get my mind off of Mew's crazy theories. Getting to my feet, I walked straight out of my open bedroom door and out of the house, slamming the door behind me. There were few people milling around in the streets, mostly children who had nothing to do, but no one paid me any mind. I rushed through the streets, wanting to get the suspicions out of my head as fast as I could. I felt like a traitor to him for even believing Mew, but I had to reconfirm that he loved me, and that I him.

I made my way over to the edge of the village, making sure I wasn't being followed. I had been taking extra precautions whenever I went to visit him now, not wanting to relive the episode with Mew. After I had confirmed that I was alone, the trees swallowed me up, dropping me into the belly of the forest. I ran through, wanting the conflict in my head resolved as soon as possible. Something was telling me that going to find Gakupo would be the quickest solution, but little did I know what I would find along with that resolution.

He was sitting where he always was, in that spot with all the moss and grass, where the trees were still a tad green despite the season. I waved to him, speeding up at the sight of him. But he didn't wave back or even acknowledge my presence. He was staring down at the ground, his long bangs covering his eyes. When I realized he couldn't see me, I called out his name, waving like a madman. He glanced up at me, and I saw that his face was soaked through with tears. Frightned, I burst into a full on sprint, arriving next to him sooner than expected.

"Gakupo?" I asked urgently, shaking his shoulder as I knelt next to where he sat. "Gakupo, what's wrong? Why are you….?"

He spun to the side and wrapped his arms around me, falling into my chest as he cried. I stroked his hair and whispered to him that it was alright, but I was scared. I had never seen him cry before, not even when we were young. He had always been stronger than me, a tough wall of anger and protectiveness to keep me supported when I felt upset. We balanced each other out, but in this moment, it felt like we had switched rolls. But we were both men, and we both had to give support, and not leave it all on the other to hold both of us up.

"What's troubling you?" I whispered to him, kissing his cheek. It was a little gesture, but it was something that he had often done to make me feel better; take when my father had died recently, for example.

He didn't sit up, but instead did the opposite. He let himself fall, his head landing in my lap as I settled onto the ground. I pet his head, allowing him to get comfortable where he was. I didn't mind it. In fact, I found that I liked him there, but that wasn't something to think about when he was a teary wreck.

"It's…..it's my sister Luka." He sobbed, his voice choked and unstable. "She….she…."

"She what? You can tell me, Gakupo." I tangled my fingers in his long hair, which was flowing free from its tail.

He turned his head to look at me, his eyes haunted with bad news.

"She knows."

* * *

**If you didn't think that this chapter was adorable at some points, then I need to work on my writing skills. These fucking two...**

**For the few people who pointed out that they were kinda young in the last chapter, let me make a few points.**

**1. The reason it sounds so mature for their age is because this takes place several centuries ago, and they are also all being told as memories. This is a journey through Kiyoteru's memories to see how he met and developed his relationship with Gakupo, but we haven't gotten to the actual story yet.**

**2. I know I made the kiss at a really early age, and looking back I see that it was a bad idea. But I had my reasons. Like I said, this takes place a long time ago, so people died at much earlier ages. Due to this, everything (like love and marriage and such) tended to happen at younger ages. Also, though Kiyoteru was twelve, Gakupo was fourteen. He's two years older than Kiyoteru, and it was sort of like he forgot the other boy's immaturity and rushed things. This was why he was so patient about letting Kiyoteru figure out his feelings, though he could only wait so long.**

* * *

**Question Time, You Peasants**

**Did you enjoy this chapter?**

**How would you describe this chapter?**

**How did Luka find out that Gakupo was seeing Kiyoteru?**

**What is Mew going to do?**

**How will Mew's theories affect the story and Kiyoteru?**

**Should I have shown Kiyoteru's father at least once before I killed him off?**

**Is Mew crazy?**

**If Luka knows, then why is Gakupo still waiting in the forest to meet Kiyoteru?**

**Did I make any stupid mistakes in this chapter?**

**Am I not updating fast enough?**

**Does this story make sense?**

**Are there any characters you want to see more of?**

**Would Gakupo really have killed Mew to protect Kiyoteru?**

**Is the "my love" thing cute? Or is it as cliche as Gakupo pointed it out to be? Too cliche?**

**Peace out you gay loving fucks. (I'm kidding. I love you)**

**-H.A.H.**


	4. Chapter 4

Four

"She….she what?" I was in shock, feeling stunned all the way through my toes. His sister knew? How? For how long? The spiral of questions swirled in my head so fast it made me dizzy, almost bringing nausea.

Gakupo continued to sob, in a state of absolute hysteria. This was another side of him I had never known, a soft, gentle, fragile side. It were as if he had been made of glass, but had word an armor of steel. But now it seemed that someone had found the one and only chink in that armor and struck Gakupo hard enough to shatter the glass. I now knew that the chink was me, and somehow Luka had found me and shattered her brother. What would she think if she saw what she had done to him? I had never met her, and I really didn't know anything about her or her younger sister. Gakupo rarely spoke of them, saying they were boring and empty like an old snail shell. They didn't seem to _feel _anything like he did, especially with me. Would Luka even care that she had reduced her brother to a shattered wreck? Or had this been her intention from the start? Did someone like her even care about the emotions of her brother?

Gakupo had always been strong for me when I was too low to support myself, and now it was my turn to repay him. I refused passage to my tears, forcing them back whence they came. This poor man did not have to witness my distress, as it would only add to his own.

I didn't release him or even loosen my grip on his body. He was falling apart, and it was my job to hold him together until he could regroup his emotions. I lowered my mouth to his face and stroked his hair, whispering reassurances toward his ear. I touched my lips to his, feeling not the exhilarating spark I felt when I normally kissed him, but instead a gentle, warm sweetness. In this sad time, it was all that was appropriate. I wasn't taking in the energy he fed me, simultaneously throwing my own passion into him. No, I was the only one giving to this kiss. He was too exhausted from his own passionate weeping to provide anything for me to take. But I didn't mind, as long as I was providing him some comfort. I didn't kiss with excitement and vigor like I often did, but instead with gentle comfort.

He didn't pull away from me, but he was too hysterical to kiss back either. I moved my mouth against his, trying to draw his focus away from his mind and into his body, where he would feel not just my comfort for him, but also my own fear and sorrow. I wanted him to kiss me; I wanted to feel as much emotion from him as I could before he was ripped out of my life forever. Whatever Luka had done, it would separate us, and I knew there was no escape from it.

"What do we do?" he whispered, pulling away for a moment to speak to me. I thought about that for a moment, my eyes closed and my mouth still moving. What were we going to do? I knew there was one option, but was it worth it?

Yes it was. Everything was worth it for Gakupo.

"We can do what you've been wanting." I murmured, kissing my way away from his mouth and to his ear, where I spoke soothing words.

I could almost feel his eyes widen in shock, though I was incapable of seeing them with my fallen eyelids.

"Are you sure? Your friends….and Meiko….."

"Will be fine without me, just like you said. I'll go anywhere with you, I promise. I love you, foolish boy. I swear upon my life that I will never leave you, and that promise plays into effect now."

"How?" he asked quietly, his sobs dying down.

"I'll meet you here tonight. I want to say goodbye first. I won't tell them where I'm going, of course, but I at least want to see my sister and mother one last time."

"I will be waiting for you, Kiyoteru."

I smiled and kissed his cheek, stroking his hair lovingly. His eyes looked hopefully up at me, still leaking tears. I was still repressing my own, knowing there was work to be done. I here was a sudden chill now to the air I hadn't noticed before. It was the feeling of his warmth being drawn away from me. I shook the feeling off, getting to me feet beside him.

"I'll be back soon, Gakupo."

"Goodbye, love."

I reached out to touch his face one last time, rubbing his smooth, perfect, porcelain skin under my thumb. It's shimmering was as beautiful as ever, appearing more like a painting than a human. He reached to his own face and took my hand in his, pulling it away from his cheek and back toward me. He gave me a somber look, reminding me of the seriousness of our situation. I sighed and turned to leave, walking purposefully back in the direction of the village. We were going to run away, but I had to prepare. I started running over a list of things to bring with me that we would need while on the run, though we would need to travel light if we wanted to escape unnoticed. Food we would be able to find while wandering, as Gakupo was familiar with which plants were edible or not. There would be creeks and streams where we could find water, but we would likely need something to carry the water in should we ever need to move away from running streams.

I made my way through the maze of trees and into the town, attempting to push my hair into place out of habit before I remembered that Gakupo hadn't messed it. Making my way from the forest's edge into the town, I noticed something was off. There were no people in the streets, hurrying home from their jobs as they normally would be at this hour. There were no men rushing home to see their wives and children, nor were there women rushing to their homes to feed their families. I looked around, noting the ominous feeling of dread in the air, chilling me to the bone. I brushed the feel aside, assuring myself that it was only an aftershock of the heavy load of information that had been dropped on me, nearly crushing my resolve. The emotion was still –after not being allowed free of my own mind– battering at the edges of my brain like a nest of hornets, desperate for freedom. It was a miracle that I had not lost my mind to my feelings, but the task I was about to attempt was a job for no madman.

The streets passed, I felt uncomfortable at the continued lack of human life around me. There was the eeriness of abandonment around me, unnerving me in a way I had never felt before. I wasn't imagining anything; there was definitely something wrong.

I picked up speed, turning into what I had hoped would look like a carefree stroll into a light jog, and then into a full sprint. I had my sights set on my house, not allowing my eyes to stray to any other object. I had to reach my home, I had to be sure that whatever had spread through the town hadn't reached my family too. I must have looked quite the fool, a fifteen year old boy running like a lunatic in fear of what he thought was the apocalypse. Though my intentions were well, I doubt any of them thought so as they looked on from their windows, eyes filled with fear and hate and pity for the boy who had been touched by a demon.

Bursting through my front door, I clasped my chest, attempting to catch my escaping breath. Looking upon the scene as I entered, my blood ran cold, realizing what was happening. There was the priest, sitting across my own dining table in my own house from my mother. What was more, was there were two other women in the house. One stared at me with a face of shock and fear, unknowing as to what had driven me to act as I had. And the indentity of the other girl gave away the reason for everything, and sucked all hope and happiness that I might have been feeling from my body.

The woman was none other than Mew, staring down in fear of me and what I might do out of the curse she believed I was under.

"Hiyama," the priest was the only one to speak, denting the thick wall of silence between me and the others of my kind. "Miss Mew has told me many things. She speaks of you associating with a demon, and performing unforgivable acts of love with this demon. I have also been informed that this demon is male, creating even worse sin upon your head." I could feel him trying to look into my eyes, but my gaze was entirely fixed upon Mew, who still treated me as I treated the priest. "Hiyama, is this true?"

Many minutes ticked by in silence before I finally spoke.

"I cannot lie to you, Father. I affirm that the words of this woman are true."

"You admit to your sins, then?"

"I do not."

"How so?" the priest seemed taken aback by my lack of respect. "You confirmed the suspicions spoken about you, so how do you not admit to your sins?"

"Father, I do not admit to the sins because they were not sins. There is no shame in a human woman loving a human man, is there not? What do you see wrong with the love between two people of the same sex, or two people of different ancestors? I love this man, and you shall call him demon no longer, for he is no demon! He returns the love I give, and that is all I could ever ask for from a wife and more. I never loved a woman other than the way I love my mother and sister, and I doubt I ever will. I have never felt the passion for any other being that I feel for Gakupo."

"You should not address the damned by their given human names, Hiyama."

"I told you not to speak of my love in such a manner!" I shouted, taking several long, threatening strides toward the man, who was small and fragile in his old age. "He may not be human, but there is no shame in that! Did you not know that among his people, the love between two people of similar sex is not only accepted, but embraced?"

"Demons embrace sin, you must see that, child."

"I am no child!"

"Please!" a new voice cried. I looked in my fury toward my sister, who had been silent as a mouse throughout the entire confrontation thus far. "Father, do you not remember what Mew suggested? If demons they are, would they not have dark magic to place upon innocents such as my brother? He has been meeting with this demon for years now; certainly that would give any spell of charm enough time to work it's demonic magic on him."

"Quiet, Meiko!" I hollered, stomping on the wooden floor as a child might. "You know nothing! Nothing!"

"Let the woman speak," the priest said, raising a hand to me as a gesture for me to freeze where I stood. I did so, naturally, out of habit.

"Well, what if this is not my brother at all, and the demon has been working it's magic on him? What if it has turned my sweet, gentle brother into a creature of great energy and passion, making him dangerous and unpredictable. I don't think we even know who Kiyoteru is, rather we have met the cursed soul created by this demon, who perhaps wanted only to play with his emotions, and filled him with infatuation. Kiyoteru was different as a child, and I don't think all of his changes were from age."

"You make an excellent point, Miss Hiyama." The priest said with a gentle smile that did nothing but make my blood boil. How dare they? How dare they speak of me as if I weren't in the room? How dare they speak of Gakupo as if nothing I had said meant anything? How dare they accuse him of such horrible things? Who did they think they were?

And now still they ignored my fury, chatting on about the possibilities of the situation. Could they not see me? Was there nothing visible to them about my boiling blood and tensed muscles? I couldn't understand, was my fury not as obvious as I had assumed?

The only one not speaking was Mew, who still hadn't moved from her position against the wall. She hung her head and seemed to be trying to squeeze herself into the shadows, as if that would make her invisible to me. I glared at her, enraged that she could have betrayed our secret. I looked over to the priest and my family, who seemed almost pleasant in their demeanor as they now discussed how I should be cleansed of the curse they now supposed I was under. I could feel tears brimming the edges of my vision, and I my body separated it's actions from all thought.

Turning on the balls of my left foot, I spun and ran out of my house, the door still wide open from my entrance. I heard a shout behind me, but I made a break for the forest, hoping Gakupo would still be there.

Sprinting back through the streets, I quickly became aware of a large presence behind me, and it was steadily growing. I didn't need eyes to tell me that a steadily growing crowd had formed and was following, attempting to catch and purge me of my sin before I could disappear forever into the arms of a demon. It sickened me to hear how they spoke of the man I loved, but there was really no chance of escaping that torment. I could feel the mob gaining speed, and I knew they were quickly on top of me. Several strong men's arms began enclosing around different parts of my body. I kicked and screamed, but there was no chance of my escape. I was one human boy against many men, most of whom, may I add, were my senior and had been working more laborious jobs than I. Had Gakupo been near, he would have been able to remove all these men from me easily had he used his true strength…but I was alone.

I screamed and screamed, but I did not scream for Gakupo. I screamed at my sister and my mother for betraying me so, and I screamed at Mew for doing as she had and revealing our secret to the rest of the village. I hated her. I would never forgive that girl for what she had done. But it seemed like the worst part of it was that the way she had looked so guilty and upset made it almost impossible for anyone else to hate her, yet I found myself doing so. Why? It almost made me feel guilty for hating her so guiltlessly!

Whatever the situation with her, there was only one idea that really dominated my mind. I was never going to meet up with Gakupo. He would wait hours for me, maybe even days, and I would never come. We couldn't run away now, and there was no chance of us ever seeing each other again at all.

I guess that's what really explains the tears that fell down my cheeks.

…

Present Day

"What on earth was that?" I grasped at the edges of consciousness, trying to pull myself into reality. I felt dizzy, the way I child does after falling out of a tree, left unsure of what exactly to think or do. The blur of voices had finally become words, which I used like rungs of a ladder to haul myself awake. "Why did Kiyo do that?"

"Could that have been the demon who possessed him before? Maybe Mew could recognize him…."

"You leave Mew out of this! It was scaring enough for her the first time she had an encounter with those things! You do not need to make it worse for her!"

"We can ask Kiyoteru when he wakes. Is his life sustaining?"

"Relax, no one had ever died from a whipping. He shed quite a bit of blood, but he'll be alright."

"Do you think he might have protected the demon due to some trace of the spell left on his memories? Maybe that demon looked similar to the one he had been taken by, or the hex had left some sort of instinct in him to protect any demon he saw. He hasn't been exposed to any between the purging of his sin and today, yes?"

"That is correct. There is a possibility that traces of the curse were left uncleansed and were activated by a stimulus Kiyoteru hadn't experienced since his cleansing."

"Is that possible?"

"This is a rare case. Most men never survive long enough to escape demonic infatuation. Kiyoteru was lucky that Mew had saved him when she did, despite her fear of the demon's uncontrollable aggressiveness and anger. She's a brave girl, though she's been through a lot. Didn't she say that the damned thing wanted to kill her to protect its prey?"

"Yes, but Kiyoteru thankfully had enough of his mortal mind left to convince it otherwise. He must have been fighting the spell all that time, poor man. Thankfully we saved him when we did."

"If any of you are considerate enough to think about his feelings, he's waking."

I forced my eyes open, finding my head on something soft and warm. Rolling my neck, I realized I had been lying on my side in my own bed, my head in my sister's lap. In the room were Al, Prima, Bruno, and the priest. I swallowed, lifting my hands to my face so I could rub the sleep from my eyes. As my shoulder blades moved, I felt a sharp flash of pain accompanied by a lingering burning sensation.

"Ow," I moaned, sitting up through the wall of pain. "How….how did I get here? Why is everyone in my room?"

"Kiyoteru," Meiko placed a hand on my shoulder –which appeared to be bandaged– but pulled away once she saw my wince. "You've been hurt. Don't try to move too much."

"Do you remember what happened, Hiyama?" I turned from my sister to the old man, forcing myself to swallow the fury that I still felt every time I saw him. It had never faded away in the last seven years, but for some reason my passion felt as if it had been lit anew.

Then the river of memory came rushing back into my head, the damn that had been holding it back breaking with a painful crash. I had seen him. He was alive, and he had been caught. They had claimed he was wandering around the churchyard, and had admitted to have been plotting against the church. This was a lie, I knew, to protect his love. He hadn't wanted them to know that he had been looking for me, but he hadn't known where to go in the village.

I could feel tears building behind my eyes, wanting to spill over at the thought. He had come looking for me! He did, in fact, still love me the way I loved him! Had he thought of me as often as I had of him? My excitement began to swell the way the clouds do before a storm, smothering the layer of my hatred for the priest.

"Hiyama!" the repeated sound of my name pulled me back from my thoughts of my love, reminding me of the situation at hand. I turned to the priest, using every ounce of lying talent I possessed to speak to the old man.

"Father, there is very little I recall of the incident. What I remember is this: I showed up to the public punishment of a man, who was later revealed to be one of the damned. He was whipped five times, I believe, before I intervened."

"And why, Hiyama, did you intervene?"

"You see, that is what I do not remember. I had never seen this creature before, and yet I found myself protecting it. It may have been some sort of subconscious empathy, but it was not intentional."

"Were there any voices in your head? Or urges as you said you had felt while under the demon's curse?"

"No, Father."

"Nothing at all?"

"No, I believe this is all completely unrelated to the past hexes of the demon." I felt as vile a human as ever had lived for speaking of my love in such a manner, but it was for his own safety, along with the safety of my chances to see him. But I swear I was on the brink of vomiting when I spoke of him with such cruelty, false or not. "It was almost as if I were sleepwalking."

"Strange," the priest mused, stroking his shabby beard. It took all the self-control in my body to hold myself together and keep a straight face. Oh how badly I wanted to grab that tiny old man by his neck and wring it like a dishcloth. Even if I could only scowl at him, I would feel slightly more contented than I did feigning civility!

"Father, please," I the voice had come from Bruno, who had stepped forward and now stood between me and the old priest. I turned to him, grateful for the distraction from me and my acting. The old man looked to him as well, but not with the thankfulness I did. His look was one of what almost seemed to be…scorn.

"Yes?"

"My friend is hurt, as he has undergone the punishment that brings even the strongest of men to tears. If you would please give him some time to heal before pestering him with your interrogations, I'm sure we would all appreciate it."

"Of course, my apologies." He gave a deep bow and backed out of my room. I listened to his footsteps until I had heard the door open and close again, signaling his retreat. The formal, tense air having left with him, I groaned and fell back onto the bed, landing on my bound wounds with a grimace. My friends seemed to start at the sight of my pain, but I assured them that there was nothing to worry for.

"Are you alright?" Prima asked, her tiny form practically fluttering to my side. I smiled as I thought of her as a dragonfly, buzzing near the creek water in the summertime.

"Just fine," I assured her. "I'm as well as one can be after a whipping, really."

"This is no joke Kiyoteru." Al said, his demeanor more serious than usual. "Are you sure you can't remember anything? Do you swear that your words then were absolute truth?"

"Why are you so intent on finding the truth?" I answered his question with a question, the most obvious way I could have possibly avoided giving an answer. He glared at me, but obviously didn't want to shame himself by copying my rudeness.

"I want to help you in case there are demons returning for you. You lost your mind and heart to that other demon, and you were lucky that it didn't take your body."

"Please calm down, my friend." I said, holding my hands up in front of me defensively. "There is no need for shouting. The possession of the demon is a thing of the past now, and I need no one fretting over me because of it."

"You see?" Meiko said, gesturing to me. "We can trust him. He isn't acting with anger or aggression, as he did while under the demon's control." She smiled at me. "You're perfectly sane and sound, right?"

"Right," I replied with a jerking nod, feeling tense and full of energy at the new knowledge I possessed. I wanted to leave our home as fast as I could, knowing that Gakupo might have been found and taken back to his home by now. "Everyone, may I please have some time to get fresh air? I've been in here for quite some time, and I think I need to walk to stretch."

"Of course, Kiyo." Meiko patted my shoulder lightly as I stood from the bed. I could feel the eyes of everyone on me as I dressed, covering my bandaged wounds. I turned and waved awkwardly to them before turning and leaving my room and heading to the front door of the house, where I left as quietly as possible. Looking around me, I saw that night had fallen, and most people had already retired for the night. I knew this was an inopportune time to be traversing the woods, but I knew it was the only chance I would get.

I kept my stride slow and casual in case anyone should see me. After the episode today, it wasn't unlikely that people would see me walking and try to watch me, so I hoped to avoid any unnecessary attention.

After several minutes of walking, I found myself in the church courtyard, where Gakupo had been found the night before. I knew I had to make it to the forest as soon as possible, before anyone came looking for me.

I wandered into the graveyard behind the church, and before I knew what I was doing, I was standing before the graves of my mother and father. There they lie resting, side by side beneath one large headstone with both their names carved into it. It was tradition among our people to bury spouses by one another, to demonstrate that their love would last one, even in death. I knew that someday Meiko would be buried here, most likely next to Al. It had been obvious that the two felt strongly toward each other for years, and it was only a matter of time before Al decided to openly display his affection. I chucked at the idea, thinking of the strange man who was my friend proposing to my strange sister. They seemed perfect for each other "the two halves God intended to join together and become one" as our holy book had put it. My mind wandered to my own situation, reminding me that I may one day find myself buried around the edges of the courtyard, where those who never married were laid to rest, in hopes that they would meet the half who never found them in the next life.

"If I don't find him tonight, I might really end up there." I murmured aloud, almost subconsciously. I doubted anyone else would be in a church graveyard at nighttime, so I found no reason for worry.

"But it looks as if I have found you, Kiyoteru."

I froze.

Turning slowly, I could feel building tension as I turned to face the direction my backside had previously been turned toward. Standing against the shadows was a tall, lean man with hair too long to be that of a male. There was a sheen toward it that sparkled purple in the moonlight, and as he stepped toward me, I noticed the twinkling of light against his porcelain skin.

"Gakupo," I whispered, stunned by the sight of him.

He took me into his arms, holding me for several moments before bending down and kissing me all over my face. It wasn't the way a mother kisses her child; it was softer, more passionate, and all the more pleasing. Every now and then his lips would meet mine and linger there for a moment, caressing my mouth before moving back to the rest of my face.

"You stupid, foolish man." He whispered in between kisses. "How dare you do something like that? How badly are you hurt?"

"Please, don't fret over me." I said, reaching out and wrapping my arms around him, returning his embrace. "I'm perfectly fine. It's you I'm worried for. How are you here? What happened after I was discovered and taken away?"

"What do you mean?" Gakupo sounded suddenly angry, her voice lowering to a deep, feral growl. "What did they do to you? How did they know?"

"Love, Mew betrayed us for her own reasons. She believed strange things, and had odd theories about you. She thought I was in danger, and that she was doing the right thing to help me, nothing more."

"But what did they do to you?" he growled, tightening his grip on me. I was silent for a moment, not wanting to haunt him with the details. "Kiyoteru! Tell me what they did!"

"They…cleansed me, as they put it." I whispered, grabbing onto his long, tangled hair. "Of the curse they believed I was under. I had to pretend it had worked to protect you."

"What does that mean? Tell me, what _exactly _did they do to you?"

"It…it involved a long, painful process. I was whipped harshly before being chained to a heavy stone and dropped into the lake in the woods, left under almost to where I drowned. The moment I was pulled to the surface, I was chained to a post and left there for three days, leaving passersby free to pelt me with stones and such. I was also beaten, shot at, and had my skin sliced by hunter's blades. It is said by the human's holy book that pain scares spirits and dark magic from the body, as those things do not have the strength of men, and will flee once hurt enough."

He gripped me tighter, holding me into his chest. I can feel his large hands stroking through my hair, twisting through it.

"I will destroy whoever put you through all that pain, I swear."

"Please, you don't have to do that," I murmured, grabbing his arm.

"Yes, I do."

"You don't. They don't understand anything other than what they have been taught in the church. Human religion is a strange thing."

"Religion is nothing to my people. Why should we think of imaginary gods and rules based on a book we don't even know the writer of when we can be hard at work, or possibly even enjoying life." I felt him kiss my forehead, a soft, gentle touch. "We do as we please, and the only rules we have are simply morals that would bring chaos were they not in existence. Do not kill without reason, do not tread on human territory, et cetera. But your people are mindless and irrational. I _will _kill them for hurting you."

I buried my face in his chest, still bare from the whipping. I could feel tears exit my eyes and pour out onto his skin, creating a puddle on his chest. I could feel him looking at me, but I didn't even stop my hysterics as he rubbed my backside and kissed my head.

"Why are you crying? If it's that troubling to you, then I won't hurt those people, even if they did torture you."

"No, it's not that," I whispered, drawing my face back and smiling up at him. "Its…you….you still love me!"

"Of course I do! Did you think that mere time would stop my love for you? My absolute desire to have you with me? There is nothing in this world that would keep me from loving you, Kiyoteru. I could be tortured until my skin has been stripped from my body and my eyes gouged from their sockets, but if I was told it would end with the admittance of my not loving you, I would endure more and more until the day I died. You are my love, and I am yours. I have done so much to protect you over the years, but not seeing you became too much, and I had to find you. I'm sorry for my carelessness."

"Never be sorry. I am the one who should apologize for doubting you." He quickly silenced my sobbing by planting his mouth firmly against mine, and I immediately responded, succumbing to the influence of his touch like a drug.

We held each other, supporting one another in the graveyard, in front of where both my parents rested. And these two bore witness to their only son's passionate kissing with a male demon. Sin or not, we didn't care in that moment as we stood together, lips moving against each other and hands tangled in each other's hair. In that moment, nothing mattered to each of us but the either, and I suppose we became a bit careless.

"Well, this is interesting, isn't it?"

Gakupo immediately pulled his mouth from mine, his eyes snapping open as he turned to glare at whoever had spoken. He clutched me to his chest, as if I were some belonging he didn't want to lose. I looked reluctantly in the direction of the speaker, and saw the face that matched the voice I had been so dreading to hear. It was the only person who could have possibly guessed the truth.

Gakupo spit out her name as one might spit a mouthful of poison.

"Mew."

* * *

**Okay, so this is officially the cheesiest and most horribly written story I have ever devised. I mean, Christ, what even is this plot?**

**NOTE: The religion in this story is completely fictional. I made it up to fit the story.**

**Sorry for the sudden 18/19th century diction. I've been reading "Dracula" and I tend to adapt the writing style of an author while reading their book.**

**Whatever, it's Question Time!**

**Was this too much going on in one chapter?**

**Was this chapter too long?**

**Are they too...cuddly? **

**What is Mew's deal?**

**Do you hate me for taking so long to update?**

**Is the timeline confusing?**

**What will the significance of the graveyard be? Or will it be significant at all?**

**What did Kiyoteru mean by Gakupo's "true strength"?**

**I'm uploading at one in the morning and I have to get up at six tomorrow. Is this becoming a problem?**

**Is this as cliche and corny as it seems to me?**

**Do the conflicts of the story seem inconsistent and randomly placed? Are they too easily resolved? Any other comments on the problems/conflicts?**

**What has been happening with Gakupo for the last seven years?**

**Bye guys!**


	5. Author's Note

Hey guys.

Sorry if this wasn't what you were expecting, and I know you've all been so nice and patient waiting for the next chapter. Well, I'm sorry but I need to inform you of a few things.

I have been suffering from depression and mental/emotional breakdowns for several weeks now. I have contemplated suicide, purged, and almost self harmed. I hate life and am terrified of it due to issues with stress, pressure from school/music/people, dealing with my sexuality (I've been struggling to come out as gay to my friends and family), and many other things. I do have the next chapter of "For Love or For Wealth?" about half finished, and I will come back and continue all of my stories once I get my shit together.

I'm sorry friends, but please don't unfollow or anything! I will come back, I promise! But when I come back is uncertain.

I just don't have the motivation to write out anything long right now, okay guys? I'm sorry for not telling you this sooner.

If you want to interact with me, you can still go to any of my tumblr blogs, my twitter, or check out my YouTube channel (which I actually haven't been doing much with because again, no motivation).

I'm really sorry guys, I just can't write right now.

xoxoxo

-H.A.H.


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